Game Day Thread Official Post Game Thread - #1 Seed Pats beat the Bills

[PatsFanInVa]

He also crapped on f the Patriots free agent signings. Here are some of his write ups:

Patriots sign TE Hunter Henry (3 years, $37.5 million; $25 million guaranteed): F Grade
Did Bill Belichick bang his head on something? Has the spirit of Bill O'Brien possessed him? Is Matt Millen holding him at gunpoint? These are three scenarios that may explain his reckless spending spree. It's a new day of free agency, yet the bad signings haven't stopped.

Spending this much money for a non-elite tight end is a mistake, but don't take my word for it. Here's a deep dive of every single big contract ($20 million or more) given to a non-elite tight end (Travis Kelce, George Kittle) over the past four years:

Browns sign TE Austin Hooper (4 years, $44 million)
Buccaneers re-sign TE Cameron Brate (6 years, $41 million; $18 million guaranteed)
Rams re-sign TE Tyler Higbee (4 years, $36 million; $15.5 million guaranteed)
Vikings re-sign TE Kyle Rudolph (4 years, $36 million)
49ers sign TE Vance McDonald (5 years, $35 million; $16 million guaranteed) Bears sign TE Trey Burton (4 years, $32 million)
Packers sign TE Jimmy Graham (3 years, $30 million)
Cardinals re-sign TE Jermaine Gresham (4 years, $28 million)
Lions sign TE Jesse James (4 years, $25 million; $11 million guaranteed)
Cowboys re-sign TE Blake Jarwin (3 years, $24.25 million)
Texans re-sign TE C.J. Fiedorowicz (3 years, $21.5 million; $10 million guaranteed)
Packers sign TE Martellus Bennett (3 years, $21 million)

Can you find one signing there that worked? I'll save you some time: Signing non-elite tight ends to big contracts has a 100-percent failure rate over the past four years. One hundred percent!

Why do teams continue to do this? When will they learn to stop overvaluing tight ends not named Kelce or Kittle?

Hunter Henry is talented, and he's closer to Kelce or Kittle than some of the names on that list, but he has a very dubious injury history. He has never played a full season. I don't know how the Patriots can trust him to stay healthy.

I'm going to vow to grade all of these signings as an "F" going forward until NFL teams learn to stop giving absurd contracts to tight ends.


Patriots sign WR Kendrick Bourne (3 years, $22.5 million): D+ Grade
Man, the Patriots cannot evaluate receiving talent. I understand this contract even less than the Nelson Agholor deal, and that one didn't make much sense either.

It's crazy that the Patriots spent nearly $50 million on two receivers today, yet they still have a big need at the position. Kendrick Bourne is just an OK player. He's versatile, but doesn't have much talent. He'll be a fine role player, but you shouldn't pay role players $22.5 million.


Patriots sign DE/OLB Matthew Judon (4 years, $56 million): C+ Grade
The Patriots are spending money like drunken sailors today. They've made some dubious signings, and while this one is much better than the Jonnu Smith move, it doesn't seem like a slam dunk either.

Matthew Judon has been a solid player for the Ravens, but never a great one. He has never logged more than 10 sacks in a single season, and Baltimore didn't view him as a great pass rusher because it traded for Yannick Ngakoue during the 2020 season. The Ravens also refused to give Judon the contract he wanted, which is telling, given that they're the team most familiar with him in the entire league. It's not like the Ravens missevaluate talent often, so why didn't they want to pay Judon the big bucks?

It could be that the Ravens knew Judon would be overpaid on the open market, like he was in this instance. Judon isn't very young either; he turns 29 soon, so he'll be spending the majority of this contract in his 30s, which is far from ideal.

In summary, I don't hate this signing. Judon will help the Patriots' pass rush, which was in need of an upgrade. However, this was an overpay, and there's a good chance the Patriots will regret this contract down the road.

NFL Free Agent Signing Grades – Latest Signing Grades for 2024 NFL Free Agency – WalterFootball

walterfootball.com

Walter Football y'say...

 

[PatsFanInVa]

I love that F grade on Hunter Henry. Oh hell, I love all these grades. Dumbass.

 

[ashley]

 

[Mack Herron]

You know they aren't going to say **** until the first required injury report and then it will be as vague and noncommittal as possible.

Limited-leg

 

[Jim Beankie]

Incredible timing by Baby Henry. Congrats and hope for health and happiness! That 1st week with the 1st child is a whirlwind.



Edit: putting it in this thread because the due date was officially the day after the 2nd Bills game, iirc.

 

[doesntmatter1]

It is mean, but I want to know who he rates as a d/f for 2022 free agents. Because that is who I want to sign lol.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Incredible timing by Baby Henry. Congrats and hope for health and happiness! That 1st week with the 1st child is a whirlwind.

Baby Henry did his/her job

 

[50-yard-line]

He also crapped on f the Patriots free agent signings. Here are some of his write ups:

Patriots sign TE Hunter Henry (3 years, $37.5 million; $25 million guaranteed): F Grade
Did Bill Belichick bang his head on something? Has the spirit of Bill O'Brien possessed him? Is Matt Millen holding him at gunpoint? These are three scenarios that may explain his reckless spending spree. It's a new day of free agency, yet the bad signings haven't stopped.

Spending this much money for a non-elite tight end is a mistake, but don't take my word for it. Here's a deep dive of every single big contract ($20 million or more) given to a non-elite tight end (Travis Kelce, George Kittle) over the past four years:

Browns sign TE Austin Hooper (4 years, $44 million)
Buccaneers re-sign TE Cameron Brate (6 years, $41 million; $18 million guaranteed)
Rams re-sign TE Tyler Higbee (4 years, $36 million; $15.5 million guaranteed)
Vikings re-sign TE Kyle Rudolph (4 years, $36 million)
49ers sign TE Vance McDonald (5 years, $35 million; $16 million guaranteed) Bears sign TE Trey Burton (4 years, $32 million)
Packers sign TE Jimmy Graham (3 years, $30 million)
Cardinals re-sign TE Jermaine Gresham (4 years, $28 million)
Lions sign TE Jesse James (4 years, $25 million; $11 million guaranteed)
Cowboys re-sign TE Blake Jarwin (3 years, $24.25 million)
Texans re-sign TE C.J. Fiedorowicz (3 years, $21.5 million; $10 million guaranteed)
Packers sign TE Martellus Bennett (3 years, $21 million)

Can you find one signing there that worked? I'll save you some time: Signing non-elite tight ends to big contracts has a 100-percent failure rate over the past four years. One hundred percent!

Why do teams continue to do this? When will they learn to stop overvaluing tight ends not named Kelce or Kittle?

Hunter Henry is talented, and he's closer to Kelce or Kittle than some of the names on that list, but he has a very dubious injury history. He has never played a full season. I don't know how the Patriots can trust him to stay healthy.

I'm going to vow to grade all of these signings as an "F" going forward until NFL teams learn to stop giving absurd contracts to tight ends.


Patriots sign WR Kendrick Bourne (3 years, $22.5 million): D+ Grade
Man, the Patriots cannot evaluate receiving talent. I understand this contract even less than the Nelson Agholor deal, and that one didn't make much sense either.

It's crazy that the Patriots spent nearly $50 million on two receivers today, yet they still have a big need at the position. Kendrick Bourne is just an OK player. He's versatile, but doesn't have much talent. He'll be a fine role player, but you shouldn't pay role players $22.5 million.


Patriots sign DE/OLB Matthew Judon (4 years, $56 million): C+ Grade
The Patriots are spending money like drunken sailors today. They've made some dubious signings, and while this one is much better than the Jonnu Smith move, it doesn't seem like a slam dunk either.

Matthew Judon has been a solid player for the Ravens, but never a great one. He has never logged more than 10 sacks in a single season, and Baltimore didn't view him as a great pass rusher because it traded for Yannick Ngakoue during the 2020 season. The Ravens also refused to give Judon the contract he wanted, which is telling, given that they're the team most familiar with him in the entire league. It's not like the Ravens missevaluate talent often, so why didn't they want to pay Judon the big bucks?

It could be that the Ravens knew Judon would be overpaid on the open market, like he was in this instance. Judon isn't very young either; he turns 29 soon, so he'll be spending the majority of this contract in his 30s, which is far from ideal.

In summary, I don't hate this signing. Judon will help the Patriots' pass rush, which was in need of an upgrade. However, this was an overpay, and there's a good chance the Patriots will regret this contract down the road.

NFL Free Agent Signing Grades – Latest Signing Grades for 2024 NFL Free Agency – WalterFootball

walterfootball.com

I put on Felger and Mazz for a bit today - background noise while I was working. (I know, I know...but since I get their schtick, I find it amusing every now and then).

I wanted to hear if anyone picked up on the Reiss article. They had, indeed. I don't know the guy they had on, who was making the "they're only good because they spent $163 million" nonsense. The entire premise was that a few teams in the past had splurged and then won 5 more games the following year.

It was pathetic. How can anyone who supposedly understands sports not see the obvious: the Patriots were a hollowed out team, trading picks for vets (who cost more) and playing deep into January or into February year after year after year? The got their coaches poached and a Patriots player coming off a rookie deal where he had proven his salt was going to get overpaid - ask Jamie Collins and Trey flowers?

Look at the Pats roster at the end of last season. Almost everyone on it expected to play a serious role in 2021 was post-30 or on a rookie deal.

So what did BB do? Nothing like the previous splurging teams did, that's for sure. You look at FA signings and you typically see the gigantic, splashy BIG NAMES, and getting contracts that will cripple any organization down the road. When a team like the Jags or the Jets win the off-season, they do so in that very manner, with no regard to bringing in the right pieces, and it never works out.

What BB saw in looking at his roster was a team with veteran leadership getting long in the tooth and losing their athletic edge, and a team full of somewhat raw youngsters (this is what you get when you pick last all the time) needing direction and room to grow and breathe.

What he didn't see was that solid core of players in their prime - seriously, who did they have?/ How many guys between 25 and 30, on that second contract (or 3rd for franchised guys or guys who had a prove-it interim).

So he went and got them, paying them what their own teams should have paid to keep them.

Judon: The Ravens ere insane in letting him go. They franchised him for 18 in 2020...the Pats got him for 16/yr for four years, in his prime. Anyone surprised by how well he's played spends too much time reading PFF and not enough actually watching the games. Ii said in FA that the only guy I'd rather go get was maybe, MAYBE, Leonard Williams, since the Pats needed a powerful DL guy - Williams got $21 a year for 3, by the way.

Henry and Smith: They're not overpaid, and the only reason so many TEs are currently underpaid is because the game went to a wide-open street-style. It isn't staying that way. Vrabel saw that, Indy saw that, and BB knew it. Look at the power teams now, and it's become obvious that TE is starting to be more valued. Easy prediction: Smith and Henry are now 4 and 5 in AAV among TE's, I believe, but in the next couple of years, they'll be middle of the pack. Look at the guys on rookie deals, like Knox and Pitts and Giseiki and Hutchinson...look at the deal Goedert just got. The Pats now have TWO TEs of high-caliber for the next three/four years, at least.

Jalen Mills: A steal at 4/24. Enough said.
Kendrick Bourne: A steal and then some at 3/15.

Nelson Agholor: Paid like a #2 WR. Serving as one, unselfishly. Doing all the little things you need him to do, and with, by all reports, a tremendous attitude - no diva - through it all.

Davin Godchaux (2 for $15), Lawrence Guy (4 for 11.5), and Deatrich Wise (4 for $22) on the DL: All solid, all flexible, and all three sitting there for an average of under $5m/per player/year (10 years of service total for under $50 million).

Up and down the roster, BB went and got people who not only would fill a role, but who would FIT the culture and what he wanted to do. Listen to these guys talk - the Pats did their homework. Bourne has become a leader. Andrews IS a leader. Judon is a leader.

No complaints, even when the season started off so poorly. They're in it together.

How people paid to cover sports can't see these things amazes me. But of course, they usually DO see them. They just don't say that because controversy is the drug, and they're the dealers. The bottom line is that we just witnessed a masterclass in flipping a roster.

BB should be Coach of the Year, yes. He's also, hands down, Executive of the Year.

I've never seen anything quite like this. Team falls apart - AB, Sanu, Brady, Gronk retirement, Edelman aging out and breaking down, Gordon being Gordon...and 2019 goes into the crapper.

2020, no fans, COVID year, clear the books.

2021 rebuild. Great draft (2020 wasn't bad, either), buy the second class you forfeited through success and trying to keep the train rolling one more year, over and over...and here we are.

To the point of the history of the other big leaps made by splurging teams...it's a hell of a lot easier for an NFL franchise to go from a couple of wins to .500 than it is to jump from the middling .500 to become a true playoff contender. The people underselling what the Pats have accomplished also fail to point things like that out.

 

[SVN]

and people think rodgers wouldve won 10 SB with belichick

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Incredible timing by Baby Henry. Congrats and hope for health and happiness! That 1st week with the 1st child is a whirlwind.



Edit: putting it in this thread because the due date was officially the day after the 2nd Bills game, iirc.

Congrats Hunter and family

 

[RobertWeathers]

and people think rodgers wouldve won 10 SB with belichick

A BB/AR marriage would never work.

This is proof.

 

[stephens44]

I think when Bill drew up the game plan for Buffalo, he aimed it at McDermott, looked something like this:

 

[farn]

A BB/AR marriage would never work.

This is proof.

I wish there was a ‘triple winner’.

Was it an important away game vs a division opponent ? What was the final score ? Did NE score more points than BUF ? Winners want to know the answers to those questions. Losers want to cry about the # of pass attempts.

 

[Gumby]

Walter Football y'say...

Jeff Dunham brought me to tears. Thx

 

[Gumby]

Rob Ninkovich goes off on Sean McDermott. Warning - ESPN link.

“ Let me re-introduce myself; I’m Bill, BILL, BILL, that’s B to the ILL BELICHICK!”

LOL. Good stuff even if bspn

 

[PatsFanInVa]

“ Let me re-introduce myself; I’m Bill, BILL, BILL, that’s B to the ILL BELICHICK!”

LOL. Good stuff even if bspn

They are living in the Bills' heads rent-free but you know what it smells like? It smells like an identity forged in "Yes we lost the SB but we did it FOUR TIMES IN A ROW!" Ladies and gentllemen the winner is.... "It's an honor just to be nominated" "Let me at least open the envelope..." Like you're in a bar argument with one of their fans and they get really drunk, and they shout in your face "Did YOUR team ever go to 4 straight SBs?!?!?"

So much BB preaches came together in that game... having to execute until that 1 or 2 plays the game turns on... situational football, every week a different situation, every down a different situation... all those things. And the Bills? They take those things not as part of the situation but as the excuse du semaine. They are literally looking at what BB looks at as a gold-mine of situational "ways to win," and they see the opportunity... for an excuse.

They would have won that game except they lost.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Past performance does not guarantee future results. Great win. I fully expect a much different game in 2 weeks. That Jete playoff loss was a surprise as another poster mentioned.

 

[patsfanincleveland]

A BB/AR marriage would never work.

This is proof.

Green Bay would have to throw due to the fact they could never run 45 for 220 and they would never score 14 which is a lot of points in those conditions.

This whole attempt thing is stupid.

If I go to a world class heart surgeon because of chest pains..........if we find diet and exercise is working.....would anyone elect for open heart surgery simply to placate the heart surgeon's ego?

People only go riskier because less risky isn't working.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Green Bay would have to throw due to the fact they could never run 45 for 220 and they would never score 14 which is a lot of points in those conditions.

This whole attempt thing is stupid.

If I go to a world class heart surgeon because of chest pains..........if we find diet and exercise is working.....would anyone elect for open heart surgery simply to placate the heart surgeon's ego?

People only go riskier because less risky isn't working.

Agree 100%

It's the buy-in to the program/game plan and setting aside his ego is the main reason why AR is not a fit w/ BB.

He just doesn't see the game the same way as BB.

What AR said (could throw the ball a few times) is not the issue. I agree with him. Yes, it is possible.

However on Monday night, the NEP had 4.9 yards per play and BUF had 4.0 yards per play.

As you say, why add risk but also as long as runners are scoring there is nothing wrong with hitting singles and doubles.

 

[Bill Lee]

Personally, I hope Tampa ends their season and McDermott passes out from the heat.